Seeds & Berries recently announced that a special tree-planting ceremony and art showcase will be held on Saturday, November 6, to honor loved ones lost to the Coronavirus.
The event will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Giving One Tenth Garden, 715 South 20th Street in Newark's South Ward.
This event is open to the community at large to attend and support the planting and be encouraged to write the names of family, friends, neighbors and/or colleagues on "legacy stones" that will adorn the garden.
The ceremony and subsequent art-based healing circle are the culmination of a series of 'Grief Relief' workshops facilitated by Seeds & Berries with local children, hospital staff and currently incarcerated people who, to this day, are still coping with the explicit, nuanced and compounded grief over the course of the pandemic.
The specific program cohorts, whose grief was complicated, misunderstood, or unheard, include:
- Children under 12
- Currently Incarcerated Individuals
- Police and Social Service Providers
- Medical Providers
Seeds & Berries' Founder Alia Berry MSW, LSW, is an experienced social work veteran and grief expert who has lived and served in the Newark community for more than a decade.
Through these workshops, the tree planting ceremony, and art showcase, Berry and her team are helping community members deal with and manage their grief through trauma-informed social work and art-based healing.
"Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, was hit significantly harder by COVID deaths when compared to other municipalities in Essex County, at one point experiencing the highest rates in the state overall," Berry said.
For many, the COVID grieving experience was further compounded by unresolved and overlooked grief related to having lost loved ones to violence before and during the pandemic.
Using a trauma-informed, community-based approach, we are building awareness around how grief works, teaching effective coping skills, and leveraging the power of art therapy to help facilitate individual and community healing from both disenfranchised and vicarious grief."
Seeds & Berries' initiative is supported by funding from the Victoria Foundation and partnership support from the Boys & Girls Club of Newark, Newark Emergency Services for Families, Newark Community Street Team and University Hospital, and local law enforcement correction agencies.
"Grief support is important in our community, as we want to help our members and community normalize the grieving process that is natural in the journey of life," Gardan Speights, LCSW, Director of Community Wellness, Boys & Girls Club of Newark, said.
"When Alia Berry reached out to me about Newark Emergency Services for Families staff participating in the Grief Relief Project, I saw it as an answer to my prayers," Newark Emergency Services for Families Executive Director, Amina Bey, said.
"My team and I have worked extremely hard constantly and consistently during this COVID-19 crisis without closing down or taking time to grieve our own personal losses. These workshops gave us the opportunity to tap into, release, and begin to heal from our own hurt. This was the ultimate self-care experience, and we are grateful for it."
"Everyone deserves the opportunity to heal," Chainah Street, Director of Victim Services, Newark Community Street Team, said.